Lies for Love
by Julia Crow
Summary: When Naruto thinks Sakura is going to kill Sasuke what will he do? How will he react when he learns the truth? Rated M for later chapters, NaruSaku.
1. Chapter 1

Takes place after Sakura confesses her love for Naruto in the Land of Iron, i put my own twist on things. I don't own the characters or anything. Enjoy.

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Naruto swore and threw his fist against the wall, all his emotions rising at once to try and become the dominate one. He couldn't believe that after everything that had happened, _this _was what it turned out to be.

The girl he loved was on her way to kill his best friend after confessing her love to him which he found out was just a ruse to get him to return to the village quietly. How messed up could things get?

Kakashi and Yamato stared at him, they could say nothing to comfort him, they both knew that, but they couldn't leave him alone for fear of what he might do.

Naruto had been furiously tracking Sasuke for so long, it took him forever to find him. He tried to rationalize that there was no way Sakura could find him so fast.

But this time is different, a voice in his head whispered, she knows where he is; he attacked the summit, everyone knows where he is. And she has Kiba, he could find Sasuke quickly.

Naruto swore again, another fist hitting the wall, he had to stop her; had to stop him from killing her because he knew that there was no way Sakura could take down Sasuke in a fight, and since he heard about Sasuke joining to Akatsuki there was little doubt in his mind that Sasuke wouldn't hesitate in killing her.

"I have to go after her," he said aloud, though mostly to himself. Kakashi looked gravely at Naruto, Yamato looked at Kakashi seemingly to await his approval on Naruto's plan.

"She couldn't have gotten that far." Kakashi said, moving towards Naruto and placing a hand on his shoulder, "we'll go after her as soon as we finish fixing the building."

"I've caught his scent, I don't think he's that far from us now." Kiba said as he led the way through the trees, Sakura's nerves were biting at her and she was thankful that for now all she had to do was mindlessly follow the boy and his dog.

"Listen Kiba," she said, swallowing the lump in her throat, "Sai..." she added, nearly forgetting that her teammate was with her. "When we find him I want you to stay back, this is something I need to do alone." Sai said nothing, but Kiba stopped in his tracks and turned back to stare at her incredulously.

"Are you joking? You seriously think you can kill Sasuke by yourself? We should just wait for the others to meet up with us before we attack him." Kiba had planned for Neji and everyone else to meet with Lee who broke off from their group after they left Naruto to tell them what happened.

"I have to do this, Kiba, please understand." She tried to meet Kiba's stare but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Naruto would hate us if we just let you walk in there and get killed." Kiba said, trying to reason with her, she tried to laugh but it came out as a broken sob.

"He already hates me, whether I live or die won't change that." She looked at Sai who looked back at her calmly, "I know you told him everything, you probably mentioned that it was my intention to kill Sasuke myself." Kiba stared at Sai with an open mouth, only slightly surprised that he had gone behind their back to tell Naruto.

"I believe he deserved to know." Sai said calmly, though he did look a little ashamed.

"Then we just have to hurry up, Naruto will follow us soon, there's no way he would sit still thinking I'm trying to kill Sasuke."

She went to keep on walking but Sai grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back so she could see the look on his face.

"What do you mean 'thinking'? Doesn't he 'know' that you are?" Sakura stared back at him, shocked that Sai would be so perceptive to pick up on that, and mad at herself that she would let something like that slip. She said nothing, no matter what they thought they didn't know her plan and even if they did there was no way to let Naruto know now.

"What are you planning on doing, Sakura?" Kiba asked, staring at her with the same confused expression as Sai. She pulled herself away from Sai and started walking in the direction Kiba had been leading them.

"It doesn't matter, it's just something I have to do alone."


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto, Kakashi and Yamato set out as so on as Yamato had finished fixing the bui lding, Naruto had yet to say a word sinc e they set off, too lost in his thoughts on what to do.

If it came to a full out fight between S akura and Sasuke, then no doubt Sasuke w ould win; Sakura was strong but she didn 't stand a chance. But if Sakura got to Sasuke before he got to her, then he wou ld have to break up the fight before she got seriously hurt. He was hoping they would catch up to Sakura before she reac hed Sasuke, but then what would he say t o her? She would know by then that he kn ew what she was planning, why else would he chase after her like that? Sakura wa s so stubborn, what if it came down to h aving to fight her? Naruto shook his hea d, he could never do that, and if he fou ght her that would mean fighting Sai, Ki ba and Lee who were on her side with thi s plan.

Naruto was dealing with his emotions whe n Kakashi signalled for them to stop, on ly then did Naruto notice that there wer e other people around them.

From the left came a group of three, aft er a few moments Naruto realized who the y were; it was Shikamaru, Neji and Lee w ho came running through the forest in th e direction of where Sakura had gone; th ey didn't seem to notice him where they were and kept running. Yamato looked to Kakashi and a decision was made to follo w them, knowing that they would lead to Sakura.

Naruto bit back his anger that was slowl y seeping out, everyone he knew and care d about was out to kill the one person h e had been trying to save all this time. He would have to fight all of them incl uding the girl he loved to save him this time.

After a while of following the group the y suddenly stopped, Neji turned to look straight at where Naruto, Kakashi and Ya mato were hiding and Naruto knew they ha d been found.

"There's no point in hiding now." Kakash i said as he jumped down from his hiding spot and approached the group, Naruto d idn't move, staring down at his friends as if wondering who they were. Though he could still hear what they were saying from his spot in the trees.

"We're waiting here for Sai, he's suppos ed to come get us when Sasuke's location is found," Shikamaru said, knowing that Naruto had been told what was happening , but it seemed he didn't know Sakura's plan.

"She's going to do _what?_" Shikamaru exclaimed when Kakashi told him what Sai had said, dragging a hand d own his face and biting his lip as he th ought about a plan of action.

"She can't kill Sasuke, she'll die inste ad." Neji said calmly, staring at Kakash i who nodded his agreement.

"We need to catch up to her before she t ries to do anything." Lee said passionat ely, his love for Sakura clearly evident in the way he spoke. Naruto envied him sometimes, being able to express his fee lings for her so strongly, now he wasn't even sure what his feelings toward her were.

"If she's planning on fighting him we do n't have much time." Yamato noted, glanc ing up at Naruto briefly in sympathy, Na ruto looked away in time to see Sai appr oaching from ahead of them. Naruto's sto mach clenched.

"I'm not sure what she's planning anymor e." Sai said, a confused expression on h is face as he met them, looking up to st are at Naruto as he spoke. "She's acting strange, she won't tell us what she's p lanning but I'm not entirely sure she in tends to kill him." He seemed apologetic , as if her change in heart were his fau lt.

"What do you mean?" Naruto said at last, staring only at Sai, intent on the hope that maybe Sakura had come to her sense s.

"I thought it was strange that she was p lanning on killing him; she's not stupid , she's fully aware that she has no chan ce in injuring him. Furthermore she has no weapons on her, I checked her bag whe n we stopped near Sasuke's location; not a single kunai or ninja tool." Naruto j ust stared at Sai, not comprehending wha t he was saying.

"You said she was planning on killing hi m." Naruto managed to get out, though it was far from what he was thinking. Mayb e she wanted to die? Maybe she loved him so much that she would rather die by hi s hands than live to see him evil? He co uldn't bear any of these thoughts, they were too painful.

"I thought she was, but I don't know wha t she's planning anymore."

"Where is she now?" Shikamaru said, look ing urgently at Sai, Naruto could tell h e was probably thinking the same thing a s him.

"We found Sasuke's location, she's taili ng him with Kiba, but I fear she might t ry something before we get to her. They aren't too far from here." Sai turned as if to lead them but Kakashi motioned fo r everyone to stay where they were.

"Neji, can you see what's happening?" Ka kashi asked, painfully calm and quiet as if he was detached from the situation a t hand. Neji nodded and used his eyes to look around them, calmly reporting back what he found.

"Sakura has confronted Sasuke, nobody ha s drawn any weapons yet, they seem to ju st be talking. Kiba is staying behind Sa kura but he doesn't look ready to fight, he's calm." Naruto clenched his teeth, wondering why they weren't going to stop them but oddly not able to move from wh ere he was. "She's...she's begging...she 's on the ground as if she were begging him." Naruto blanched, picturing Sakura begging him to kill her, begging to die by his hands and not able to sit still a ny longer he jumped from the tree and ra n in the direction Sai had come from.

People called his name behind him, and h e could sense them following him, but he wouldn't wait for them; he wouldn't let Sakura die no matter what he was feelin g for her. She was still his teammate. S ai managed to pull ahead of him, nodding at Naruto and then leading him in the r ight direction. Naruto hoped he would ge t there fast enough, but somewhere deep in his gut he knew what he would find.

They arrived on the open plain to find t hat Sasuke had already left, the only pe ople on the field were Kiba and Sakura. The scene was enough to make Naruto stop in his tracks; Sakura was lying on the ground, her eyes closed and blood poolin g from underneath her, Kiba was kneeling beside her, doing his best with his lac k of medical training to stop the bleedi ng which was coming from her abdomen. Na ruto watched as everyone ran to Sakura's side, the jonin taking over as Kiba ste pped back to watch with a mixture of hor ror and disgust as they did their best t o bandage Sakura up.

"Kiba what happened?" Lee asked, his fac e etched with worry as he watched the jo nin inspect Sakura. Kiba shook his head and walked off into the trees, his hands convered in Sakura's blood and angry te ars slowly falling down his cheeks.

Naruto couldn't move, and he found himse lf unable to make any sort of expression , an angry face was all he had, though h e couldn't figure out himself who he was angry at.

They decided that Sakura couldn't be mov ed yet, and since there were no medical ninjas with them except for her, they ne eded to send for someone. Yamato built a wooden house and carefully they brought Sakura inside and laid her down in the closest room. Someone had to stay with h er to make sure she was okay, and though everyone looked at Naruto it was Lee wh o was eventually picked to stay with her .

"Kiba, tell us what happened." Kakashi o rdered as they all gathered in the room beside Sakura so that Lee could hear as well. Kiba barred his teeth, looking dow n at the floor he started to talk, only addressing Kakashi.

"We located the target," Kiba said coldl y, as if giving a regular mission report . "Sakura approached the target alone, I stayed hidden to be her back up. She sp oke with the target, _pleaded_ with him, and he still refused to liste n to what she was saying."

"What was she saying?" Kakashi prodded w hen Kiba had stopped, his hands clenched tighter but he continued.

"She wanted the target to go back with h er to the village." The room grew quiet, even Naruto felt his breathing stop; it wasn't what he had expected to hear, wh at he had been bracing himself to hear. Again his emotions battled each other to be the dominant one, though his face re mained angry.

"He refused?" Kakashi asked, though he a lready knew that answer. Kiba nodded, te ars falling faster.

"After everything she said, after gettin g on her knees and begging him, he walke d over to her and before I could even re act...he just stabbed her with his light ing and walked away." Kiba looked up now , but it was Naruto he glared at. Before he could speak though Lee came through the doors looking slightly relieved.

"She's waking up, she keeps saying Narut o's name..." Lee glanced at Naruto but h e refused to acknowledge the fact, he ju st kept staring at the wall he had been staring at the entire time. Kiba growled and stood up abruptly.

"I'll go and tell her that the one she l oves doesn't even care that she's injure d." Kiba said furiously, walking past Le e into the room Sakura was in and slammi ng the door behind him.

"She doesn't love me." Naruto said to hi mself, though everyone in the room could hear him and looked at him sympathetica lly. "She lied."


	3. Chapter 3

Kiba knelt down beside Sakura, holding her hand gently as she woke up not quite sure what to do to help and still furious at Naruto's indifference.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked as she opened her eyes, Kiba tried to smile for her but he felt himself fail.

"He's not here Sakura, how do you feel?" Sakura registered that it was Kiba in front of her and her face fell a little though Kiba didn't think it was possible for her to look more distraught than she already did.

She didn't say anything about her wound, just stared at the ceiling and relived her failure. How could she have been so stupid? To think Sasuke would actually listen to her, when had he ever?

"Sakura." Kiba's voice dragged ehr back to reality and she winced as she registered the pain in her side. "You need to tell me what to do about your wound; I have no medical training." She looked down at herself and realized she was bandaged and quite well for someone with no medical training. She also realized she was in a room and not outside where she had fallen.

"My injuries were too bad to be moved." She noted in a small voice, wondering what had happened. Kiba smiled a little but nodded.

"Lee and everyone else showed up, between us we managed to bandage you and move you somewhere without doing too much damage; we couldn't just leave you in the snow." Sakura accepted this explanation quickly, too dizzy from the pain to care whether he was lying or not.

"I need to close the wound." She said absently, "I don't have enough chakra I think..." She had focused all her chakra into stopping the bleeding while she was conscious, and while she was unconscious it seemed her chakra had continued trying to stop it, though it had failed at closing the wound. She placed her hands over the wound and focused her chakra there, concentrating on weaving the veins closed and pulled her skin together; she found it extremely difficult.

"You can use some of my chakra." Kiba added, hoping to help. She shook her head briefly, focusing harder on her wounds.

"You don't have enough, the only person who would have enough to help do this would be..." She trailed off, the pain of thinking about how much Naruto must hate her now was too much.

"About what you said to Sasuke..." Kiba started, thinking about her confession to Sasuke and what she had begged him for.

"Don't tell Naruto." She said quickly, stopping her healing to look at him. "He probably hates me, thinking that I tried to kill Sasuke... thinking that I still have feelings for him...it's easier on him if he doesn't have to worry about me and that stupid promise I made him make." She bit back tears and stared at the ceiling. "You know... I've been nothing but a burden to him and he still loves...loved me. I doubt he does now, after what I said. It's not like I deserve him anyway." Kiba remained silent, knowing that if Naruto had stayed in the other room he was hearing all of this, maybe it would make him come to his senses.

"If Naruto knew that you did this for him, that you begged Sasuke to come back to the village so that Naruto wouldn't be in pain anymore, he wouldn't hate you; if he knew you lov-

"Kiba! Please..." Sakura interrupted, the tears falling from her eyes more freely.

"Sakura, I don't understand... why didn't you just tell Naruto the truth? Tell him that you were going to convince Sasuke to come back?"

"Because everyone had decided that we were going to kill Sasuke...if they knew I was still against it they would have stopped me. I thought, for some stupid reason, that I could fix everything on my own; that I didn't have to rely on someone else to do it for me." She covered her eyes with her arm and tried to control her sobbing, Kiba looked away from her slightly embarrassed.

"You told Naruto you loved him." Kiba managed to say, though he didn't know where he was going with it. He wanted Naruto to hear the truth, but he didn't even know if Naruto was listening.

"I was being selfish." She refused to say anything else on the subject, she simply went back to trying to heal herself, her eyes closed tight to shut out the world and concentrate on what she was doing.

She heard Kiba leave, the door opened and shut again and for a minute she felt alone; letting her sobs escape her more it wasn't until she felt hands on hers that she opened her eyes to see Naruto kneeling beside her.

Neither of them said anything, and he refused to look her in the eyes but his intention was clear. She wasn't sure if Kiba had told him that she needed his chakra, or if he had been listening the entire time; she wasn't even sure which one she was hoping for but she took his chakra gratefully and did the best she could healing herself.

Even with Naruto's chakra Sakura could only manage to temporarily stop the bleeding and she still felt way too exhausted to move. She could tell something wasn't right with her wound and reaching up to feel her forehead she could tell she had a fever that was far too high to be normal. She swore under her breath and stared at the ceiling.

Without needing to be called Kakashi entered, she looked at him thankfully; she wasn't sure if she could bring herself to talk to Naruto after everything that had happened.

"How are you injuries, Sakura?" Even Kakashi looked at her strangely though she couldn't tell what it was she saw in his eyes. She decided to try and be as professional as possible.

"The wound goes through my abdomen, there's something wrong with it though and I'm unable to close it. I've stopped the bleeding now but it won't last long. My temperature is too high, and I don't think I should be moved." She bit her lip.

"Is it life-threatening?" Kakashi asked. Sakura looked at him seriously, glancing at Naruto who was still looking angrily down at the floor.

"I believe that I won't be able to stay conscious for too much longer, and without surgery I might..." She couldn't bring herself to say it but she could see both Kakashi and Naruto visibly brace themselves as if the word had been hurled at them. Even as she stared at them she could feel herself slipping into the darkness that awaited her.

"Alright, just rest Sakura, we'll figure something out." Kakashi left the room and again Sakura was left with Naruto. The darkness was slowly closing in on her and she felt as if she had to say something to him, just in case she never woke up.

"I..." She didn't know what to say, and still he refused to look at her. "I'm sorry..." She drifted away, hoping that maybe he wouldn't hate her as much as he surely did now.

Naruto watched Sakura close her eyes and held his breath until he was sure her breathing was steady. He didn't know what to think, or feel, finally he allowed himself to look at her and the sight nearly killed him. She looked so devastated, in so much pain that he wanted to cry, but he forced himself to remain impassive. He needed to process everything that had happened before he could allowed himself to speak to her, to anyone for that matter. He could hear Kakashi giving orders in the other room, and listened to him without taking his eyes from Sakura.

"We sent for a medical ninja though," someone was saying, the worry in the voice made it sound like Lee.

"She won't make it." Kakashi said with resolution, "we need to get her to the medical team back at the village if she has any hope of surviving." Everyone was quiet.

"I don't think shes in any condition to be moved." Neji said, his voice pensive. "Wouldn't it be a risk to move her?" Kakashi sighed, though it was laced with tension and worry. Shikamaru was the one that answered.

"It's a gamble either way; if we wait here for fear of moving her, she might die before the medical ninja arrives and even if she survived to see the medic she might need more help than just one. But if we leave she could die on the way from the shock of being moved, but if she survived she would have more help than if she was still here." Naruto's heart stalled at the risks they were taking but he knew her best chance was getting to the village.

"We should leave right away, though I know everybody is tired we can't waste time here." Kakashi sounded apologetic but firm. They would be leaving now.

Naruto pulled the blanket off of Sakura, keeping his eyes off her bandages and the blood on her clothes, when Lee joined him in the room he had packed everything away into their bags and was getting ready to go.

"I'll carry her, Naruto." Lee said, moving to go and pick up Sakura but Naruto stood in front of him. Wordlessly he stared at the boy until he understood that Naruto would carry her and nobody else. "I'll help you get her on your back then." Lee said, only slightly disappointed that he wouldn't be the one to carry her. Once she was secure on his back Naruto joined the others in the main room, they looked at him worriedly but he still said nothing, looking at the floor and waiting for them to leave.

Sakura was too warm, her heat was seeping through his clothes so that he could feel it on his skin. Her fever had gotten increasingly worse and they were still a little off from the village.

"We should be meeting up with the medical ninja soon, we might be able to stop and have them take a look at her." Lee was saying, he had not left Naruto's side since they left, though it was only to stay near Sakura. Naruto briefly wondered why he didn't just let Fuzzy Brows take her, but he found himself unable to let her out of his sight.

"I think it would be best to keep walking, we can fill the medical nin in on the way, but unless they're sure that they can help I think we should wait until we get to the village before we stop." Kakashi said, picking up the pace a little after glancing back at Sakura.

Naruto tried to cut off all his feelings, he tried not to think about anything, but all he could think about was what he heard Sakura say to Kiba in the other room. She hadn't known he was there listening, so maybe what Kiba said was true...maybe what Sakura had said was true. Could he dare to hope?

They reached the village in record time, meeting the medical ninja along the way and explaining the situation to him he had agreed that Sakura had better see Shizune right away for medical attention. Naruto wasted no time, following the medical ninja to a spare tent they had set up for any surgeries that needed to be done, Shizune was called to the tent and Naruto helped lay Sakura out in the center of the room, being careful not to jostle her to much in case her injury got worse.

When Shizune arrived she took one look at Sakura's injury and immediately ordered for four more medical ninjas to be called and prepped for surgery.

"Naruto you might want to leave." She said as she removed the bandages and clothes from around Sakura, making sure that he chest was still covered decently. Naruto stood up but only moved to the corner of the room, sitting down and keeping his eyes on Sakura's form. "This isn't going to be pretty, do you really want to sit there and watch?" Still Naruto made no move to leave and the other medics arrived forcing Shizune to leave Naruto be and focus on Sakura.

"She has lightning chakra eating at any chakra that tries to heal her, so we'll need to re-pierce her with a chakra absorbing blade to draw out the lightning before we can heal her." Shizune pulled the mentioned blade out of a medic pack that she has with her, holding it carefully in her gloved hands. "We don't have any sedatives or pain-relievers so she's going to wake up. One person cover her mouth to muffle the screams, we don't need to scare the other villagers, everyone else hold her down so that she doesn't move." Naruto watched carefully, determined not to look away though he couldn't reason with himself as to why he was still there.

The medical ninja held down Sakura's arms and legs, one covering her mouth so that she wouldn't scream. He watched as Shizune raised the blade and plunged it into the already opened skin of her abdomen. Immediately Sakura's eyes flew open and her muffled screams came from her throat. She tried to throw the medical ninja off of her but she was far to weak to do anything. Shizune tried to comfort Sakura, but his teammate seemed to be oblivious to everything around her. Naruto clenched his hand to keep from reaching out to her, his emotions were starting to strangle him.

After a while it was over, Shizune finished bandaging Sakura up and she told Naruto to carry her back to the tent Sakura had been staying in, but in stead of taking her there Naruto carried her to his own personal tent and laid her down on his sleeping mat. He sat beside her, staring down at her as he came to terms with his feelings.

Of course he still loved her, he didn't think it was possible that he would ever stop loving her, and he was so mad at himself for not stopping her before _this_ happened. He knew what he had to do now, something that he had always wanted to do. It's now or never.


End file.
